April 2014

January 2024

H I G H L I G H T S

            

Siblings in Christ,

Blessings and peace to you in the New Year! I’m writing to you a few days before JoDee and I depart on a ten-day trip in Germany and France. The first leg of our journey will take us to Iceland, where, yesterday, a rather large volcano erupted at a spot just a few miles away from Keflavik airport, where our flight will land in the winter darkness in a few days.

At first, I was a little peeved and then a little afraid of flying into what may still be an active volcano eruption. In 2010, a similar eruption blanketed the entire North Atlantic in ash and grounded all air travel to and from Europe. Experts are predicting that this eruption will be mostly lava and should not produce any ash. And as I watched the pictures of the lava flow, it was stunning—we are witnessing the birth of rocks! Should all go according to plan with our flight, and should the volcano still be spurting lava—what a show we’ll have from the air as we descend.

What an incredible way to see how our God is still at work creating in God’s world. That even the rocks and mountains continue to be made new by the work of their master’s hand. How will you be made new in the new year? If God can melt even rock and reshape it and give it new purpose and place, how can God melt your heart and turn you in a new direction? Indeed, God is always working on you, too. And as the Christmas season has just shown us, God enters into human life as a human, this baby born in Bethlehem to be the one who makes all things new.

JoDee and I thank you for this time away and we look forward to sharing our experiences with you. We will be worshiping in Martin Luther’s home church, the Stadtkirche St. Marien, in Wittenberg on Dec. 31, and also at l’Église Protestante Luthérienne Saint-Jean in Paris on Jan. 7.

Upon our return, we look forward to all the new year has in store for us—including the quick onset of Lent and Easter! Inside these pages we are grateful to be able to introduce our new church administrator, Rachel Hamling, and also to recount all that has happened in the past month and what is in store for the month ahead.

God’s peace and blessings be upon you now, and always!

Congregational Annual

Meeting, Sun. Jan. 21

Our annual meeting will be held following the 10:30 a.m. worship service on Jan. 21. There will be only one service on this Sunday.  Please attend this important meeting of our congregation. All confirmed members of the church are eligible to vote. Items on the agenda are approval of the 2024 budget, election of council officers and other positions. (Annual Meeting Ballot information on page 3.)